Oana Cazacu, Ph.D.

Email: cazacu@reef.ufl.edu
Assisted by: Heather Dickhaut, Academic Assistant

Dr. Oana Cazacu is the interim regional director for the UF Innovation Station (UFIS) at the Research and Education Engineering Facility (REEF). In this role, she is responsible for oversight and leadership of UFIS-REEF and all its programs which serve the educational and research needs of the Air Force, industry, citizens, and community of the Northwest Florida region. UF-REEF offers Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in engineering and provides research capabilities and opportunities for innovative collaborations locally in mechanics, aerospace, and mechanical engineering, including solid and fluid mechanics, autonomy, and control.

Oana Cazacu is Charles E. Taylor Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. She graduated from the University of Bucharest (Romania) with a joint B.S. and M.S. in Applied Mathematics in 1990. She earned a Ph.D. and Habilitation degree (HDR) from the University of Lille, France, in 1995 and 2004, respectively. She has served at the UF REEF for the past twenty years. She is an internationally recognized expert in modeling and simulation of non-linear deformation, damage, and fracture of engineering materials for high-rate applications, including non-traditional manufacturing processes, digital testing, evaluation of lethality effects, and hypersonics. She has co-authored two research monographs and thirteen book chapters, edited and co-edited four books and over 120 papers in international journals, and presented 100 + plenary, keynote, and invited lectures. She is Deputy Editor of the Plasticity Book Series (Elsevier) and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Material Forming (Springer) and Mechanics Research Communications (Elsevier). She has been the recipient of visiting fellowships and chair professorships in Europe (e.g., Paris-Sorbonne, Univ. Lorraine, France; Univ. Carlos III Madrid, Spain) and Australia (Swinburne Univ.). Among her Ph.D. students, seven of them are AFRL/RW and ARO researchers.